Edited by: SilentCarto
Proofreader: Coandco
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Dresden Files or My Little Pony, that is Jim Butcher and Hasbro respectively. This story takes place between books Eight and Nine in the Dresden Files.
“You are a good boy, aren’t you? Yes, you are. Yes, you are,” Fluttershy cooed. Her arms were stretched in two different directions, giving scritches to both cat and dog. Mister the cat purred in response and Mouse the dog let out a series of happy pants and whines.
Animals here in the human world weren’t quite what she had expected. Mr. Dresden had told her that, except for special cases, they weren’t very intelligent. She had assumed that meant they were maybe a little slower than the animals she was used to, but even the least clever animals in Equestria still responded to her talent so it shouldn’t be a problem. After all, she had met Mouse months and months ago and he was every bit as bright as an Equestrian dog, maybe even moreso. But Mr. Dresden had told her that Mouse was special and even after meeting only a few Earth animals she was willing to believe him.
Equestrian animals varied in intelligence and many of them had trouble understanding some of the more abstract notions that ponies took for granted, but Earth animals didn’t seem capable of abstraction on any level. The seagulls at the Pier, the dog at the park, the pigeons on the street, even Mister, Harry’s cat, couldn’t grasp what she meant when she tried to communicate.
Her talent still worked to some degree and Mister was genuinely fond of her, but so many animals here just weren’t capable of being her friends. Not like Equestrian animals.
It… made her a little sad.
Her left arm stopped first and Mouse let out a disappointed little chuff, but waited patiently. She used both hands to bring Mister’s scritches to a crescendo and then slowed down to a crawl. He blinked at her, glaring a little.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “I need to go help your friend so we’ll have to stop for now.” Mister’s glare got stronger and he lazily batted at her hand, disappointed that she had stopped, but unwilling to admit how much he had enjoyed her attention. Fluttershy bit back a sigh as he sauntered off. He couldn’t understand why she had to go, and now he was unhappy with her.
Mouse, at least, nosed her in the direction of the trapdoor and smiled his doggy grin. Her smile returned, and she gave him a quick pat, fighting the urge to go back to petting him fully. Fluttershy glanced up to check on the progress of her other friends.
“– and that’s when Twilight drops the teleport and puts us back at the cave!”
“I don’t know,” Twilight mused, a notebook open and several pages scattered around her. “Are you sure the ropes would hold? Dresden described vampires as extremely strong.”
“Then we use ropes to start and lock’er in something a mite stronger once we got’er down. Port city like this has gotta have some thick chains around for the ships and such.”
They were still busy trying to come up with a plan to convince Mr. Dresden that they could take out the evil vampire without anypony getting hurt. It’s possible they would come up with something perfect for that and everything would work out, but right now Fluttershy was pretty certain that wasn’t what Mr. Dresden needed. So instead she moved over to the trapdoor, lifted it, and scootched down the small stairwell without a backwards glance.
Mr. Dresden had a lab downstairs. It was a little like Twilight’s lab, but there were fewer crystals and machines and a lot more clutter and random knick-knacks. She moved quietly, and with his back to her, Mr. Dresden didn’t seem to notice. He was so busy with his little cauldron and bottles that he might not have seen her even if he had been facing the stairs.
“Alright, Bob. What do we need next?” He asked.
Unlike its master, the skull noticed the moment she came into view and its eyes were already tracking her. Fluttershy once again fought the chill creeping up her spine. Contrary to what some ponies thought, continued exposure to her fears did not make them any less frightening. Skulls still had no business glowing or speaking, regardless of species.
“We need some meat on them bones,” Bob said, regarding her critically.
“Seriously?” Mr. Dresden asked. “Five minutes ago you told me the bones had to be ‘picked clean’. Is this a replacement for the blood or do we need some meat just to fill out the potion’s base?”
“Some filling out is definitely called for,” Bob said, authoritatively, while still staring at her. “Don’t get me wrong, the slim and cute look isn’t bad, but there are limits. Even a subtle curve is good but once you’re reaching washboard levels you might as well be looking at a boy.”
Mr. Dresden blinked in confusion at his words, breaking his reverie, and that’s when one of the stairs decided to squeak under Fluttershy’s weight.
Mr. Dresden spun around immediately, his staff leaping into his hand by magic. But by the time it arrived, he had realized who she was. His face creased with a scowl, but it wasn’t aimed at her. “Of course. ‘More meat on them bones’. Ha ha, very funny, Bob.”
Despite being nothing but a skull it somehow gave the impression of a shrug. “Hey, I call’em like I see’em. If you’re into that kinda thing, though, I’m not gonna judge.” He paused. “Unlike the police. They might take an interest even though she’s not technically–”
“That’s more than enough of that.” Mr. Dresden said, his tone firm. He sighed with a sense of much pent up frustration. “Just watch the potion and don’t say anything unless it needs my attention, okay? Can you do that without slipping into some level of perversion?”
“Fine, I guess,” the skull replied, sounding sulky. But it turned its glowing eyes away from her and towards the cauldron, so that was all that really mattered.
“Hey, Fluttershy. What did you sneak down here for?” Mr. Dresden said. He was trying to smile and sound kind, but it was in that I’m-tired-and-frustrated-and-yes-I-still-love-you-but-this-had-better-be-good sort of tone. Fluttershy... might have used the same kind of voice with her animals once or twice.
“Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Applejack are trying to think of a plan to take on that vampire and convince you they can do it without any bloodshed so I–”
His scowl returned despite his best efforts and a little growl entered his voice. “Got sent down here to sweet talk me into following their plan?”
“No,” Fluttershy replied. His eyes widened slightly and his scowl shifted subtly from one of annoyance to one of bewilderment. “I’m not here to talk.” She settled onto a stool in the corner and gave him her full attention, careful not to look directly into his eyes since Twilight told her that could be dangerous. “I’m here to listen.”
“To what?”
“To you.”
He stood there for a second, his cauldron softly simmering behind him. He turned to it and stirred it, even though the skull hadn’t told him it needed anything. Fluttershy bit her lip, hoping she hadn’t upset him. But still, she had to try.
“I thought that since this is your world, you know it best. I don’t understand why we can’t just go out and defeat the vampire lady, but you probably didn’t understand a lot of things about our world. Everypony else wants to talk you into doing something our way and maybe they’re right, but I want to hear from you why we shouldn’t.”
He stopped stirring. “You heard what we said up there.”
“I heard ponies talking at each other, not with each other. Applejack was mad and you were mad too and maybe you’re both right to be mad. But I understand her side and I want to understand yours. Please, talk to me, Mr. Dresden.”
He let out a long, slow sigh and turned back around. He found another stool somewhere among the clutter and sat down on it. “Okay, I can’t promise I can do it well, but I’ll try to explain.” He paused another moment and ran a hand over his chin before speaking.
After a short chance to think he continued. “Okay, remember that Bug Queen Chrysalis you guys were telling me about in the letters? Let’s pretend that she had been smart. Let’s say that instead of attempting an all-out attack on Canterlot, she used her position as Cadence to replace certain ponies with changelings, and otherwise just lived normally. Then even if somebody like Twilight saw through it and figured out the truth, nobody would believe her, because it would sound crazy.”
Fluttershy couldn’t help but flinch at that. She and the other friends should have listened better to Twilight at the Wedding, but she had just seemed so stressed and angry over her brother only telling her at the last minute. And… and if she was being honest it had sounded crazy. Changelings had been banished from Equestria so long ago that hardly anypony remembered that they even existed.
But Mr. Dresden wasn’t finished. “And even if it didn’t sound crazy – because your world is even weirder than mine – nobody would want to believe her. When everything seems normal on the surface, it’s easy to dismiss somebody like Twilight for trying to tell you something scary. If she’s right you’d have to live in fear of those monsters so it’s easier to believe a comforting lie. But let’s say that Twilight pulls through like she always does and finds some incontrovertible evidence. Even then, you still have an entire hive of the enemy embedded into your population. Beating up Chrysalis, even killing or revealing her, isn’t going to make them go away. You’ll be fighting a long drawn out conflict where the enemy is inside your own country with ponies loyal to them whether because of money, mind-magic, or just because the changeling is a charismatic liar.”
Fluttershy wished that weren’t true, but Chrysalis had twisted a powerful unicorn like Twilight’s brother around her hoof without trouble and Fluttershy knew that some ponies were motivated by gold better than friendship, like the Flim-Flam brothers, or easily fooled into doing terrible things, like the Order Triune ponies.
Fluttershy thought she was starting to understand his problem with fighting the vampire lady, but he wasn’t done yet. “And let’s pretend that Obsidian still lives in another country and likes to send raiding parties to mess things up. So you’ve got demons destroying villages and killing ponies, but his country is too big and too far away to just send an entire army or you’d be unprotected from the Dragons that are just looking for a chance to attack. The changelings are willing to help against both Obsidian and the dragons because even though they’re monsters they want Equestria to be powerful and profitable because a strong Equestria means a strong hive, so it’s even harder to tell other ponies that they’re really monsters.”
His hands tightened into fists and his voice became harder and louder. He wasn’t looking at her anymore, but at something in the distance. “Then more Diamond Dogs start kidnapping ponies to work in their mines. Friends and family don’t even know their loved ones are still alive and needing rescue because nobody even knows where they are. They just disappear with no witness or evidence. And there are people who are supposed to be on your side, like the Order Triune let’s say, but those guys are a bunch of paranoid assholes who mistrust everyone even to the point of turning on their own people. While all this is going on Discord and Nightmare Moon are just on the other side of the Nevernever looking for a way inside so they can cause mayhem and havoc and the Elements of Harmony and Celestia are nowhere to be found.”
He stopped what had almost become a rant and took a long breath. His voice was softer, but his hands still clenched tightly. “And it’s not like things became that way overnight. They’ve always been that way. There’s always more monsters, more enemies, and some of them are stronger than you’ll ever be. So you learn to compromise. You stand your ground to protect the people you know, because you can’t protect everyone. You sell your soul bit by bit, because some things are too big for one person to fix.”
Fluttershy didn’t realize she had stood until her arms were already wrapping around Mr. Dresden, pulling his head to her shoulder. He was almost as tall as her, even sitting down. He stiffened in surprise, but she laid her head on top of his.
“You can’t blame yourself,” she murmured softly. She wasn’t crying, but her eyes were wet with unshed tears after hearing how much self-loathing and guilt his voice carried. “Nopony could expect you to fix a whole world. Especially not one like yours.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment or return the hug. Eventually he said, “If nobody tries, then the world stays broken. But that’s the problem right now.”
Fluttershy let go and took a step back as he continued.
“Everyone upstairs wants to fix my world without even realizing how big a task it is. Taking out Lara wouldn’t stop the White Court from being evil. If anything, she shows more restraint and intelligence than most of that family put together, and with her gone someone with just as much power and less morals would probably take over. If we wanted to stop the entire White Court, that would take an all-out war with the eight of us against dozens of powerful vampires and hundreds of combat-capable humans. That’s not a winning prospect, and it’s not like they’d fight fair. It would be safe to expect snipers, ambushes, and poison among other, more creative attempts at assassination.” He paused and sighed.
Fluttershy nodded. “I think I understand.” She reached out and took his hand, which seemed to surprise him.
“What?”
She pulled gently, but his hand barely moved. “B-bob, will the p-potion be okay for a little while?”
“Oh, so the waif is showing a dominant streak? Good luck pulling him into bed.”
Human ears couldn’t fold back, or both of Fluttershy’s ears would be flat to her head. Even so she flushed bright red. Mr. Dresden started to growl something, but she just took Bob at his word. “I’ll t-take that as a ‘yes’. C’mon upstairs, Mr. Dresden.”
He seemed unclear on her aim, but finally stood after she tugged two or three more times at his hands. He followed her up and they emerged in the apartment just as Twilight was adding the finishing touches to whatever her plan was for overcoming the vampire.
“AND THEN WE RELEASE THE KRAKEN!” Twilight thundered, a corona of light surrounding her head, despite the lack of a horn and her hair floating on end. Applejack and Dash, stomped in appreciation, but Fluttershy just waited. Once they died down, she cleared her throat.
“Okay, so on’ta plan number nine?” Applejack said. Nopony seemed to have noticed Fluttershy or Mr. Dresden.
“A-hem!” she said at a slightly higher volume, which caught the attention of the other ponies. Or maybe it was the way Mr. Dresden thumped the butt of his staff on the floor in time to her words. Either way, the other three ponies glanced at her in surprise.
“Oh hey Fluttershy,” Dash said. “You bring Dresden up here to listen to our plans? Personally I still think number five is the best. We just need to figure out where we could buy fifty chickens on short notice.”
“No,” she replied quietly. “I was just talking things over with Mr. Dresden and I… I agree with him. We shouldn’t try to beat up the vampire lady.”
That got the attention of all three of her friends. “Surely, you aren’t serious?” Twilight said, “From everything Dresden said she’s outright evil!”
“She is serious and don’t call her Shirley,” Mr. Dresden said, chuckling softly to himself before putting back on his serious expression.
Everypony stared at him for a moment, but Fluttershy used the opportunity to start talking. “Twilight, what if we had stayed behind and fought Chrysalis with Princess Celestia instead of running for the Elements?”
“Hard to say,” Twilight began, thinking about it. “Princess Celestia is probably still wounded from her fight with,” she shuddered, “that demon from Dresden’s last visit. Chrysalis was also very well-fed on Shining’s love so maybe we could have tipped the scales, maybe not.”
“We definitely would have,” Dash declared, gesturing curtly. “If we’d have been there as back-up Chrysalis would’ve gone down hard!”
“Either way, Princess Cadence and Twilight’s brother woulda thrown out that love shield and gotten rid of the changelings all the same,” Applejack added.
“But if we didn’t have the Love shield, would stopping Chrysalis stop the invasion?”
All three of her pony friends went quiet.
“Probably not,” Twilight admitted after a moment. “If anything the Changelings that targeted us on the way to the Elements would have joined in the fight on her side.”
Fluttershy nodded. “From talking to Mr. Dresden I think that’s about what would happen if we beat up the vampire lady. The vampires would still be terrible people doing terrible things and we’d start a war with them.”
“Technically the White Council is already at war with them, because they’re allies to the Red Court,” Mr. Dresden said. “But their support for the Reds has been half-hearted at best. If we took out one of their top figures then they’d jump into the war with both feet. Once they were done fighting amongst themselves to determine the new leader. And that’s aside from the hit squads they’d send after us for actually doing the deed. Eight people aren’t enough to fight an entire nation of vampires.”
“But we can’t just do nothin’!” Applejack shouted. “She’s evil!”
Mr. Dresden sighed. “I know. Believe me, I know. But she’s the least of several evils right now. We need to stop whatever is going on at that warehouse and starting a fight with the White Court will get us killed. This is the real reason I didn’t want to get any of you involved in my work. I didn’t want you to have to compromise your morals like this.”
“Dresden…” Twilight said. She sounded pained. “Nopony thinks you’re immoral because you can’t stop everything. That’s one of the reasons we want to help; so that you have a team who can do more together than you can alone.”
“Yeah!” Dash cut in. “No need to make it so complex. Even somepony as fast as me can’t be everywhere at once so it’s not like we blame you for not stopping everything bad.”
“But that vampire lady still rubs us raw,” Applejack punctuated her statement with a quick stomp. “I ain’t sayin’ any of this meanin’ to blame you, and I’m sorry if that’s how I came off cuz I was angry, but I’m gonna need some more convincin’ that we shouldn’t just take’er out. Maybe you give us more of a lowdown on the whole situation and listen to some of our plans and we reach some kind of understanding together.”
Mr. Dresden snorted faintly, but he looked better than he had a minute ago, less grim and more energized. “Couldn’t hurt,” he agreed, pulling over a chair.
Fluttershy smiled to herself as Mouse shuffled over and brushed against her right leg. Her hand found the sweet spot behind his ear and started scratching, much to his enjoyment. She was okay dropping out of the conversation now, because the hard part was over. Whatever the group decided on, it would be alright. Talk went back and forth but it wasn’t the same as before. They weren’t competing with each other, trying to make the other pony see things their way. They were listening to each other, willing to work out something together.
………
The old van was chilly in the early morning, and Fluttershy fought down a yawn. The others had held their ground until well past midnight – with occasional breaks to work on the potions – but in the end Dresden had pointed out enough problems and consequences about the plans to beat up the vampire lady that everypony had agreed she was a secondary priority. For now, at least. Helping him with the warehouse was the most important thing, but Twilight had made it plain that she wanted to draft some improved plans ‘for later’, possibly after getting Princess Celestia’s blessing to assist.
They had stopped by the werecouple’s house, then Mr. Carpenter’s house to pick up everypony else and got an early breakfast courtesy of Pinkie Pie. Apparently Mr. Carpenter had put his foot down on her sugar and TV consumption and she’d finally gotten a good night’s sleep. So thankfully there was less of a frantic edge to her boundless energy this morning. The waffles were still amazing, though.
But all too soon they rolled up on the strange warehouse that Dresden had said was the lynchpin to the plans of their mysterious enemy. A round human sitting in the guard shack looked up with an air of boredom as the old van approached, but once he laid eyes on Mr. Dresden he was suddenly wide awake.
“You…” he whispered in a mix of fear and disbelief.
“Are the man of your dreams?” Mr. Dresden asked, a wolfish smile on his face. “Yeah, sorry to burst your bubble, Doug. But you’d better just open the gate and find another job. No need to make this difficult.”
The pudgy human sweated for a moment, but the soft growl of a wolf behind him helped him to make up his mind. The metal gate began to clatter open and Fluttershy could vaguely see Doug running for a beat-up car in a nearby lot as they accelerated toward the wide, blocky building.
“All right, gang,” Mr. Dresden announced, “we’re pulling up right beside the nearest door and one way or another I’m busting us in. From there, we sweep the factory for anything suspicious. But we never go out of sight of each other! If you can’t see the group, the group can’t see you, so always check that everyone has eyes on you.”
He got a chorus of agreement from most ponies and Spike, but Fluttershy just nervously bit her lip. It was so much easier going into combat with her Element. Not that Kindness granted her any special fighting ability, but at least then she was useful. Still, she felt for the little medical kit they had picked up. She could assist her friends, at least.
The van stopped beside a gray door spotted with orange streaks of rust. Mr. Dresden went to work on its lock almost immediately with a set of little metal tools.
Will and Georgia caught up to them, still in wolf form after loping their way across the concrete lot, but Mr. Dresden was still feverishly working on the door. Less than a minute later he cursed as one of his tools clattered to the ground, falling from his left hand. “Fudge this,” he quietly muttered, only ‘fudge’ wasn’t exactly the word he used.
“Fozare!” Mr. Dresden shouted, a wave of magic smashing into the iron door tearing it from its hinges and giving them a sudden – if noisy – entrance into the factory.
Everypony streamed in, following Mr. Dresden with Fluttershy and Spike bringing up the rear. Just inside the building were two semi-human things with hunched shoulders and yellow fangs. Applejack and Dash rushed into fighting one of them and the other was paralyzed in place by ribbons of light the same color as Twilight’s aura. Then Mr. Dresden’s fire poured over the bound one in an angry wave. Its screams died off quickly, but Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel sick.
They were monsters. They wanted to hurt people. Given the chance they wouldn’t have the slightest reservation in killing all of her friends.
But that didn’t mean she had to enjoy watching them die.
Soon the ghoul held by Twilight was done and Mr. Dresden’s attention turned to the one Applejack had just slammed into the ground with a Germane Suplex. The impact stunned it and the moment Applejack was clear, fire hot enough to scorch the stone floor engulfed it. It screamed for a brief time before it died.
There was no hesitation or doubt in Mr. Dresden’s angry expression.
“Uh… that’s one way to take care of them, I guess,” Dash said.
“Ghouls are harder to kill than cockroaches,” Mr. Dresden said flatly. “Body blows will put them out of commission for a second, but you need fire to do any meaningful damage.” Silence greeted his proclamation. “Okay, that’s it for the welcoming committee, but there are going to be more of them. AJ and Rainbow take point. Will and Georgia scout the building, but make sure to keep out of harm’s way. Report back to us if anything looks hinky. Fluttershy, Spike, Rarity and Twilight, you take center. Pinkie and I will hold the rearguard.”
Most ponies nodded and Fluttershy awkwardly tried to get herself into position. Pinkie saluted with an almost silly degree of seriousness. Fluttershy didn’t know where she’d gotten the dark clothes and strange-looking goggles she was wearing. Or why the goggles had three glowing green lenses when she only had two eyes.
“Which way do we go, Dresden?”
“I say left,” Dash said decisively. “You always wanna go left when you’re in a maze, right?”
Mr. Dresden shrugged, “Left it is.”
The old factory was so full of rusting equipment, towering structures, and piles of boxes that Fluttershy didn’t even see the next foe until they were just about on top of them. Two ghouls turned in sudden surprise as the group turned the corner around the latest set of machinery. There was a half-second of surprise from both sides before Pinkie yelled, “Mr. Ugly Senior, Mr. Ugly, Junior? What are you naughty kids doing here?”
The smaller of the two ghouls yelped and flat out ran toward the nearest door marked ‘emergency exit’. The bigger one made a disgusted face at his former comrade and charged forward with a bellow. Rainbow Dash darted into his face, landed a couple jabs that distracted him, but didn’t seem to do much damage. Still, it slowed his charge as he paused to swipe at Dash.
Which only kept him from seeing Applejack coming.
She came in low and then shot up, as if she was kicking off the ground itself. Her fist crashed into its jaw, sending him rocketing up into the air.
“Pull!” Mr. Dresden yelled, with a slightly manic grin. His fire rod glowed as red as the breast of the first robin in spring, but Fluttershy couldn’t help but be frightened instead of elated.
The fireball that exploded out of his stick consumed the ghoul. It was still moving when it landed, but given the crispy, blackened texture of its skin she doubted it would be doing so for long. Her gorge rose at the sight and smell and she glanced back at her friend. He’d told her how evil ghouls were, but at the same time she wasn’t sure Mr. Dresden was entirely… well… stable when it came to ghouls. Something had happened to him; something painful involving them. But being the person he was meant that Mr. Dresden turned that pain into anger, and the ghouls certainly didn’t like it when he was angry.
Regardless, they were moving forward again, only this time their fight had been noisy enough that she was sure the bad guys had heard them coming. And she wasn’t wrong. A human-looking man was hunched over a complex arrangement of tubes and canisters that was hooked together with wires and all sorts of other strange things while two more ghouls advanced on them, claws out and yellow teeth bared.
“Twilight, Rarity!” Mr. Dresden called, “No magic! That thing looks technology-based and who knows what will happen if we hex it.”
Twilight gave him an exasperated look, but Rarity just furrowed her brow and took up a stance she’d gotten from one of martials arts classes she took for exercise. Pinkie, meanwhile, just unlimbered a more streamlined version of her previous cupcake launcher. With a muffled ‘fwip-fwip-fwip’ the bad guy was soon being pelted by small – but dense – little brownie bites.
The two ghouls weren’t about to let that go unanswered and they dove forward with claws out. Fluttershy squeaked with fear and… well… she… kind of... scrunched-in-on-herself-and-shut-her-eyes. From the sound of things her friends were getting the better of the bad guys – although Dash really shouldn’t use that kind of language – but it was really scary and difficult (Applejack too, for that matter) to open her eyes when she knew she wasn’t helpful – Spike must have learned that word from a book – but had to be there anyway.
It took a moment to find her courage, made longer by the thunderous blasts from Mr. Dresden’s ‘revolver’, but when Fluttershy reopened her eyes, everything seemed to be mostly settled. The ghouls were tied up tight with Applejack’s lasso and gagged with enough cake stuffed into their mouths that Fluttershy worried whether or not they were even able to breathe. The human-looking man was nowhere to be seen, but Twilight and Dresden were pondering over the contraption, Will and Georgina at their sides, muzzles disturbingly wet and red. The two mages seemed hesitant to even touch the machine, but while several locks of Twilight’s hairs had already sprung out of place, Mr. Dresden looked more contemplative.
“So… um…” she asked, slightly sheepishly. “What did I miss?”
“We kicked some serious butt!” Dash crowed.
“Which won’t matter at all if this thing blows and kills us all!” Twilight cried, her mane going into ‘full frizz’ mode.
“Funny, it don’t look much like a bomb,” Applejack commented.
“It’s not a regular bomb,” Mr. Dresden supplied. “It looks like all those canisters would release a deadly gas.”
“Oh!” Pinkie said with a start. “So like when Rarity went on that all-bean diet and–”
“Finish that sentence and I’ll have you in Court for slander,” Rarity said, a faint blush adorning her cheeks.
Mr. Dresden snorted. “No, I’m talking about a nerve gas that would kill us before we even smelled a thing.” He paused for a second. “Although given how weird transformation magic can be, for all I know you seven would be perfectly fine. Wouldn’t be the first time the Red Court has used poison gas, but Chicago is supposed to be Neutral Territory. I fought a duel against one of their Nobles to keep this city out of the war.” He sounded annoyed, but entirely unsurprised.
“That doesn’t change the fact that we have a bomb to deal with!” Twilight shouted.
Mr. Dresden shrugged. “Yeah, but watch this.” He took two steps away and quickly sketched a circle on the concrete floor. “Applejack, once I’ve got this way open, get ready to do the honors.” She nodded, slightly confused, but positioned herself next to the machine. From within the circle Mr. Dresden gave a quick cry of ‘Aparturum’ and a vertical line in the air just opened, as if he had cut through the canvas of a camping tent. On the other side of the tear was a jungle made of stone and among its concrete trees were dozens of gibbon-like monkeys.
Only… monkeys didn’t typically have needle-sharp teeth, three-inch claws, and scorpion stingers at the ends of their tails.
They just seemed to have noticed the tear in reality as Mr. Dresden scuffed the circle and shouted, “Toss it now!”
Muscles bunched as Applejack wrapped her arms around the contraption and flung it into the forest beyond the tear. A couple of the monkeys that had reacted first and rushed the portal were smacked out of the way as the machine took up the entire space of the tear. But for once Fluttershy wasn’t too upset.
They didn’t seem like very nice monkeys.
“Instaurabos,” Mr. Dresden shouted, causing the rift to seal up on itself. Fluttershy somehow felt the sensation of a distant explosion, without a sound to her ears or even a wind to ruffle her mane.
Twilight meanwhile was just standing there with her mane poking out at all angles. “It can’t possibly be that simple,” she murmured.
Mr. Dresden’s manic grin was back, and he looked Twilight straight in the eyes. “You’d be surprised.”
But their moment was interrupted when Rarity let out a shriek. She had been poking around the equipment and boxes at the edge of their group and the human-looking man from before had evidently been hiding there. He had a death grip on one of her legs. He clambered up her body despite his broken, twisted leg and her attempts to fight him off, and soon had an arm around her throat.
Less than a second later he was surrounded. Will and Georgia snarled at either side, Mr. Dresden’s fire rod glowed with cherry-red fury, Twilight’s hands glowed a furious purple, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Spike, and even Pinkie had their game faces on standing by to attack him.
“Last chance, asshole,” Mr. Dresden bit out. “You let go of the girl and you have a chance of walking away from all this. Hurt her and you won’t survive ten seconds.”
“What guarantees will you give me in exchange for my hostage?” the human-looking man asked. He was trying to be confident, but Fluttershy could tell he was more nervous than he let on. He reminded her of a cornered rat, desperate and frightened; ready to do anything to get out.
Rarity gasped as his claw grazed her, and for only an eyeblink his face softened, glancing at her worryingly. He restored his poker face almost instantly, but Fluttershy had seen it.
“We’ll let you go,” Fluttershy said, surprising everyone, including herself. But if what she thought was true...
“Fluttershy, what in tarna–”
“Do you swear it?” The man asked, his hand unconsciously loosened its grip from Rarity’s throat and she took a long breath.
“Yes,” she confirmed, even as Mr. Dresden opened his mouth to protest. It shut again with a snap. “You’ll be our prisoner and after a day we’ll let you go. I promise.”
He growled and his hand tightened again. “That isn’t what I wanted.”
Fluttershy swallowed and made her spine straighten itself. This was just like refusing Angel Bunny when he wanted an extra carrot. “It’s what you’ll get.” She shivered and hoped he didn’t see, but already she was studying him. There were some strange dissimilarities between him and humans. Bits of musculature moved under his skin as if he had a different skeletal structure and his ocular orbit was subtly different from a normal human’s as well. And all that was ignoring those rather prominent canines that weren’t too much bigger than Mr. Dresden’s but were just big enough to be noticeable.
Abruptly he took out a harsh breath and released Rarity. “I accept.”
“You’ve got to be kidding, Fluttershy!” Mr. Dresden said, anger rising from him like steam from an oven. “The Red Court,” he jerked a thumb as the human-looking man, “are trying to quietly gas the entire city. The tangle with Marcone, killing Sean when he noticed too much, trying to distract me, it all adds up to keeping people out of the way while they set up something to take out the entire city!”
“Yeah, but we stopped it right?” Pinkie said, hopefully. “Hip hip hooray?”
“I’d have preferred so, but given that the bomb was marked ‘#4’ I somewhat doubt it,” Twilight replied, her hair somewhat settled, but still not fully back in place.
Mr. Dresden grunted dourly. “Which makes sense, because Chicago is a huge city. One gas bomb alone is not gonna be big enough to cover the whole thing no matter how well it spreads.” He turned to look at the ‘Red Court’ man. “Which means we need to know where bombs 1-3 are located.”
Everypony turned to stare at their prisoner and the vampire shrunk back slightly. “I was promised my safety in exchange for surrender.” He reminded them.
Mr. Dresden scowled harder, but it faded as Fluttershy laid a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I have a plan.”
………
It wasn’t actually a very good plan.
She was willing to admit that to herself, but couldn’t say it outloud. Convincing Mr. Dresden to let her talk to the prisoner alone was already hard enough. If she let him know she was acting on a suspicion instead of a certainty there was no way he’d have let her. So in the end Mr. Dresden greeted her idea with a lot of bluster and anger, but it really just meant he was worried about her, so eventually he agreed.
But not before he chained the vampire to the thickest beam, with the thickest chain they could find and threatened him with any number of terrible fates if he hurt her.
“So… chained in place awaiting the wizard’s threats, but you’re the one to get me to talk?” The vampire chuckled hollowly.
Fluttershy took a deep breath and met his eyes. His face showed only contempt for her, but she could read fear in his body language and desperation in the way his eyes darted around. He was fixed solidly to a steel beam, and besides that he was already terribly injured. One of his legs was bent and twisted with thick, syrup-like blood dripping slowly from the hem of his pants. He wasn’t a good person, but she’d seen tiny hints of something other than a monster in him. Maybe she was just imagining it, but if she wasn’t...
Any animal was dangerous when wounded and a predator like him, doubly so. But she pushed that fear away to a distant part of her mind and took a single step forward. “Yes.”
He spit something onto the floor, staining it red. “And how will you do that?” He asked sullenly. “Gonna read my mind?”
Fluttershy pulled over a chair and sat down. “No,” she said, falling silent again, letting him get it out of his system.
He glared at her, and she fought not to tremble. “Then you don’t have a chance. I’ll die before I talk. Even if the wizard breaks our deal and tortures me, I won’t say a damn thing! You hear me?!”
Fluttershy nodded slowly. “I hear you.”
The vampire scowled. “Then what are you doing here? You can’t make me talk.”
She nodded again. “You’re right.”
He sat still for a moment and studied her. She could tell he was confused and uncertain. This wasn’t going how he expected, and he didn’t like it.
“I can’t make you tell me anything, but I hope you will tell me because it’s the right thing to do.”
He stared at her for a moment more before laughing. “Are you an idiot? You’d almost have to be since you’re dumb enough to hang around that wizard, but that’s ridiculous. Nobody would talk because ‘it’s the right thing’.”
Fluttershy frowned, then gathered her courage and met his eyes. “But people will be killed. Thousands of people: mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. People that have never done anything to you.”
“So, what?” the vampire sneered. “They’re livestock. No one would care if a herd of cattle fell over dead except the person that owned them.”
“I would care.”
He glared at her again. “Then you’re a fool.”
She watched him without responding and let silence fill the room. He became uncomfortable and broke eye contact with her. He was hurting, and it wasn’t just from his ruined leg. The fear in her began to lessen. It wasn’t that he was any less dangerous; she knew and respected the threat he posed. But, she was starting to understand him.
“Um… don’t get me wrong, but weren’t you human, too? Mr. Dresden told us that vampires have to turn humans to make more vampires.”
He hissed at her like an angry cat, but it didn’t scare her. She knew how to help animals like that. “No,” he spat out after she didn’t flinch. “I was never human. Not in any way that mattered. I was the fastest, the strongest, the smartest child in my village. Lord Ortega saw the truth about me and elevated me to my proper place.”
“But you were human? Whether or not you were destined to be a vampire you had a life and a family before you turned, right?” Fluttershy asked, her tone confused.
The vampire spat onto the floor again. The way he was eyeing her said that he was thinking about trying to spit on her. But Dresden had warned her about their addictive salvia and she had kept her distance. The vampire had evidently realized that too.
“The rest of the village feared me, respected me, from the moment my talents became obvious. They knew that one day our Master would elevate me. I was separate, different from them and everyone knew it. Nothing human ever mattered to me,” he sneered at her.
Fluttershy took another deep breath. This was going to be difficult, but she met his eyes again and steeled herself. “I imagine that your human family mattered to you very much before your master took you away.”
The vampire’s movements stopped entirely.
“Leave,” he hissed.
“No.”
“I said leave!”
“No. You’re hurt. You’ve hidden it for a long time, but that won’t heal it.”
“There is nothing to heal, witch. It is a sign of pride and honor when one of your children is chosen by Lord Ortega,” he stated coldly. He even sounded like he believed it.
“Then your parents were happy when he came for you?”
His flat, hateful stare returned. Fluttershy lowered her eyes and did not meet it.
“Is this how you hope to make me talk? Reminding me of when I was weak and human, like you?”
That wasn’t quite right, but she didn’t correct him. “I hope that you’ll tell me because it’s the right thing to do.”
“And you’re back to that. Look, I’m not telling you,” he said. “You may as well give it up.”
“I can’t. There are too many people counting on me.” Fluttershy fell silent again. She could tell that she was confusing him. She stood resolute, but made no aggressive displays or demands. Like any predator it unsettled him to have something he couldn’t easily fit into the categories of prey or competitor.
“Yeah, thousands of humans. You mentioned that.”
“And Mr. Dresden,” Fluttershy said. “If I give up, then he’ll try to make you talk. So long as there’s a chance it could save someone, he would take it.”
The vampire stared at her, his posture stiff and fearful again despite his claim that no pain could make him talk. “And he’s counting on you to keep his hands clean? That cowardly–”
“No,” she said. Fluttershy spoke quietly, but it stopped the vampire’s words cold. “I made him let me try. He’s so full of anger, so full of sadness. He tries so hard to save people, but he still fails sometimes and it tears him up inside. But he can’t do that forever. He can’t take everything on himself. He needs me to do this, even though he doesn’t know it.”
“Like I care about the wizard. Let him torture himself over what he ‘has’ to do. I don’t care.”
“You should. I think you’re probably a lot like him deep down.”
He growled again. “I am nothing like him.”
Fluttershy shook her head softly. “Then why didn’t you hurt my friend? The fight was over, and you couldn’t run, but you still could have hurt Rarity something awful. You probably expected to be killed or tortured, so why didn’t you? Why did you surrender even with one claw around her throat?”
He had no answer, or at least, not one he would admit to.
“It’s because you didn’t want to cause more pain. You knew it would be pointless; it wouldn’t let you win or escape. Deep down you don’t want to hurt people, you just feel that you have to.”
His laugh was ugly and full of contempt. “Girl, do you have any idea what I’ve done over the past century? The lives I have taken? The things I have done under my Master? The pain I’ve inflicted? I am a monster, and you’re an idiot if you think otherwise.”
“I believe that you’re a monster,” Fluttershy agreed, which came as a shock to him from the wide-eyed look on his face. “Because it’s easier to be a monster. Because monsters don’t have to feel guilt or regret. But you don’t have to be a monster.”
“You pathetic, weak little bitch,” he growled. “What makes you think I want anything else? I serve Lord Ortega with my life. I have sacrificed everything to be his lieutenant! I drank the lifeblood of my own sister to become a vampire!”
Silence ruled after his announcement.
Fluttershy slowly stood up and approached him. This was the riskiest part, but she knew she was close – so close – to reaching him. She felt fear, but she also felt sympathy well up within her. She put away her fear as she moved closer and closer, well beyond any safe distance. He hissed at her, and this time she flinched, but kept walking. Eventually she reached him and he stared at her in fearful uncertainty.
She reached out with both arms, bent down, and gathered him into a hug. He stiffened in surprise, but she did not let go. “And you have never forgiven yourself, have you?”
The breath caught in his throat. Then he released it and began speaking, almost mechanically. “Our first feeding is fatal. We can’t control the bloodlust right after turning. I was so thirsty when he put her in the room. She knew what had been done to me, knew what her presence meant, but still she smiled to see me again. I tried to resist, but he had given her a small cut and the smell was overpowering. She told me it was all right. She told me that she loved me even as I drank and drank until she was cold and gone.”
He took in a deep breath through his nose.
“You’re scared,” he said with no threat or anger. He was just stating a fact.
“Yes.”
“I could bite you right now. Maybe even kill you.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She let go of him then, and straightened. “Because even monsters deserve a little kindness.”
He let out a breath in a long low sigh. “You remind me of her. She was weak, but her smile could light up a room, heal any heart. My Master believes that the weak are prey for the strong. He told me I should not mourn her passing, but celebrate how her death could serve a grander purpose.”
“What do you believe?”
“I believe I would have rather faced the wizard. I could have hated him and been strong no matter what pain he put me through. You...” he hung his head in shame, and fell silent. Fluttershy stayed quiet and let him think. Eventually he continued. “He would never forgive me if I told you. Lord Ortega has sacrificed everything to avenge his father’s death. His wealth, his connections, his status in the Court. Everything.”
“Maybe you’re not the one that should ask for forgiveness.”
“He gave me a home and a purpose!” the vampire replied, his voice heated. Fluttershy stayed silent and watched as the anger died and sadness took its place. “But only after he destroyed the ones I used to have.” Fluttershy put a hand on his shoulder. The hand trembled, but she didn’t let go. The vampire glanced up at her again.
“I’ll talk, witch. Maybe you worked some magic, maybe I’m just weak hearted. But you’re right; girls like my sister don’t deserve to die because of his grudge with the wizard. I’ll tell you where the bombs are.”
………
One of his sites wasn’t responding and Hector Ortega, former Margrave and pure-blooded Noble of the Red Court, was beginning to worry. He was close, so close, to erasing the damned wizard and his precious city. In mere hours everything would be ready. They could set the timers and he already had a contact in the Circle that would grant them passage into the Nevernever. Within minutes of the detonation the mortal poisons would cover the city, drifting through any threshold or supernatural protection. Millions of mortals would die, the wizard among them. And even if Hector was caught after the fact, his rather public expulsion from the Red Court several months ago would insulate them from repercussions.
It was a perfect plan.
If only site four would respond that they were ready to go.
A wild thought crossed his mind. What if site four had been compromised? What if despite all his precautions that damned wizard had found a way to disrupt this too? The idea rankled. It clawed at him from the inside. To fail and fall this close to the finish line was unacceptable, but then… he could always direct his subordinates to set the bombs off right now. If they didn’t wait for the Circle to provide a Way out, if they didn’t set the timers… well… not even the wizard could be everywhere at once....
They had all known going into this that the plan could mean their deaths.
They had already thrown away everything else, so what was one more sacrifice?
He reached for his phone, when the door slammed open. It was the ancient beast.
It still had a cow femur jutting out of its mouth like a strange parody of a human leaving a restaurant with a toothpick. But most humans didn’t snap their toothpick in half and began chewing the pieces. “What is it now?” he demanded. He had planned to send this benighted thing after the wizard one last time to ensure he was busy while the timers were set, but there appeared to be no time left. So be it. The thing would live or not based on the whims of fate and just how nerve gas affected its inhuman physiology.
“I’ve figured it out,” the beast declared, sounding inordinately proud of itself.
Hector bit back a sigh. Including this thing into the plan had been a mistake, no matter how good of an idea it had seemed at the time. “Figured what out?” he asked, paying little attention, pulling his phone out and dialing the number for his subordinate at site 2.
A small, slim hand darted out, grabbing the top half of his phone and wrenching it clean off.. Hector was alight with fury, but the moment he locked eyes with the beast that anger died a sickly death in the light of its grin.
“Where that scent came from.”
Hector had no idea what the thing was talking about, but it didn’t matter. Every survival instinct he had ever possessed told him this was a do-or-die situation.
He flung the scrapped remains of the phone at the thing’s face and followed that with a strike to its throat, claws fully extended. His flesh mask ripped away from his hands as they shot out like lightning. The phone bounced off the beast’s face but it didn’t even react to that.
It did however react to his strike by sweeping his claws away with one imperious hand then snapping forward with the other hand to grasp his throat in an iron grip.
No, not iron. Iron could be broken or twisted. This was something with all the implacability of stone. Ancient and unforgiving.
“I still have people in place to inform on your presence!” he said with something close to a squeak. “If you kill me, they’ll provide the Green Lady and all the Fae of the Summer Court your description and even items that could be used to track you.”
It tilted its head as he made his case, trying desperately to sound like he was still in control. He knew it feared the Summer Court so his measures should have been perfect. Or rather it had feared the Summer Court, but now his threat seemed to only amuse it.
“I’m serious!” Hector choked out. “Kill me and there’s nowhere on Earth you could hide!”
“You’re right,” it murmured, which gave Hector a great sense of relief. Finally it was willing to see reason and–
A great crunch interrupted his train of thought and the many little crunches that followed made certain that he’d never have another one.
“There’s nowhere on Earth I could hide.”